by Michelle Wilkinson

Created on: March 30, 2009

The trouble with framing the issue of whether access to counselling should be considered a prisoner's 'right' is that it tends to elicit the response that since prisoners have committed a crime and violated the laws of the land, they been deprived of their freedom and any rights which go with it as punishment. However, if society really wants to tackle the fundamental basis of crime and the issues driving individuals to break the law it makes sense to utilise all tools available, including counselling, to ensure that prisoners do not re-offend once they are released.

This can be a hard sell to the general, law-abiding public, though, when it is their tax money keeping criminals clothed, fed and homed. To a lot of people the security which prison offers criminals basically amounts to the rewarding of illegal activities. Yet the majority of criminals that make up prisons can hardly be said to have come from privileged backgrounds. Many have grown up in care or in an unstable family situation, most will not have a sufficient education to even be able to read and write, and the majority will most probably suffer from substance abuse problems and mental health issues. It should hardly come as a surprise, then, that so many turn to crime when they feel they have little to lose.

Prison should not just be about punishment, but also about reform and rehabilitation. Punishing prisoners and sending them back out on to the streets will not leave a lasting impression on most of their minds, as indicated by recidivism rates. A large proportion of them will go on to re-offend, particularly when they end up right back where they started with their old group of friends, in the same community, without an education or a job. If nothing has really changed it is not surprising that so many convicted criminals go on to commit more crimes on their release.

Counselling is therefore only one component of a successful rehabilitation programme, but an essential one. Counsellors are not able to address their patients' living arrangements, access to work or education, but they can help them tackle the other psychological and social issues which drive them to commit crime.

In the United Kingdom 72% of male and 70% of female sentenced prisoners suffer from two or more mental health disorders, which clearly require treatment rather than punishment. This may take the form of pharmaceutical treatment as well as support from counselling services. Counsellors enable prisoners to tackle their anger management issues and to find more effective ways of coping with stress than turning to drink and drugs, or using their fists.

Criminals have to want to reform themselves in order to succeed in turning their backs on crime, but it is also essential for the facilities and a support network to be in place to help them get back on track. Counselling needs to be recognised as a significant part of this support network, and access to counselling services should be acknowledged as a right of prisoners if anything is ever likely to change in the future.

References

http://www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk /subsection.asp?id=438

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